Getting more from the sun

Efforts to expand use of rooftop solar panels in unincorporated San Diego County took another step forward Tuesday.

In an ongoing initiative to remove some of the cloud over financing for such systems, county supervisors ordered a report on options for expanding the pool of commercial and residential lending programs.

Supervisors Dianne Jacob and Dave Roberts are leading the effort to grow the county’s public-private solar financing, which has been stymied because of a Federal Housing Financing Agency ruling that effectively blocks homeowners from repaying solar loans through annual property tax bills.

Supervisors said the county program — known as Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE — can’t get regulatory or legislative relief from the restriction.

The report is expected to examine adding a variety of financing alternatives but still limit the residential program to homes with no Federal Housing Administration loans and those with no outstanding loans whatsoever.

“We’re really looking to have more tools in the toolbox,” Jacob said.

Roberts said he wants to “make sure we can do the entire universe when this is resolved.”

Representatives of solar financing firms, installation companies and environmental groups spoke in favor of the effort, including Tom Conway, cofounder of Renovate America of San Diego, which finances residential renewable energy systems. He said more financing options could spark a massive surge in rooftop solar use.

“We want to move the discussion from the theoretical to the practical,” said Conway, whose company has a program in place throughout most of Riverside County.

Supervisors also acted on Roberts’ campaign pledge in 2012 to improve county adoption services. They voted to have county staff research ways to speed up getting foster children linked with families.

“Whatever we can do to streamline the process to get our foster children into permanent homes is good,” said Roberts, who has five adopted children.

The county receives about 300 applications a year from people seeking to adopt, but navigating the process can take months.

Former state Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, the father of two adopted children, told supervisors that reducing the time it takes to permanently place even one child with a family will make the effort worthwhile.

“It has to be a very well-regulated process, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be more efficient and effective ways to do it,” he said.

The supervisors also unanimously backed “Hazel’s Law,” legislation sponsored by newly elected Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego. The measure is named after a San Diego woman who was abducted as a teenager and forced into prostitution.

Vargas’s bill, H.R. 1690, would close a loophole by removing knowledge of a victim’s age as a requirement in winning a conviction for child sex trafficking. Federal law now requires that prosecutors present evidence that a sex trafficker knew the age of the victim.

The namesake of the legislation, identified only as Hazel C., appeared before the supervisors Tuesday to urge their support.

Her story of how her assailant took her from San Diego to Oceanside and forced her into prostitution until she escaped prompted this comment from Supervisor Bill Horn: “I just think firing squads should be brought back for a couple of crimes, and this is one of them.”